I was assigned to the State Department in then West Berlin. Reagan’s visit had us being very very busy. However, those who worked on his trip got to be at all of the events and were treated very well by White House advance. I was at that speech, and the speech at Templohof Airbase. When Reagan called for Gorbachev to ‘Tear Down This Wall’ there was a brief pause before polite applause from the Americans in attendance. After all, we knew that he didn’t mean it, surely, just rhetoric…why, there was no way that he could possibly understand the intricacies and subtle diplomacy required here in West Berlin!
It turns out that there was a huge fight between State and Reagan on whether that section of the speech should stay in. State tried to remove it, so did the other agencies. Reagan kept it in.I got to read the telexes over that issue and it was a fascinating insight in to the way DC works.
There was one person at State in West Berlin who believed that the collapse of Communism was at hand and for the life of me I can’t remember his name. He worked in the econ section though. On November 10th 1989 he calmly went into work at The US Mission West Berlin and issued a rather nicely worded ‘I Told You So’, and then took the rest of the day off.
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War came to an end. Conservatives felt triumphant, their vision of personal liberty and economic freedom had been vindicated. With the Iron Curtain gone, Western corporations moved into Eastern Europe and that region’s economy took off. Even the Leftist Parties in the West abandoned Progressive economics and adopted Market based policies. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are examples of Leftists who embraced Free Markets in the 90’s. However the situation changed and the Progressives came roaring back. What brought back the Left, you may ask? The answer is very simple: 9/11/01.
Twenty years ago today, supporters of freedom and human rights cheered and wept for joy as the Berlin Wall was torn down by jubilant young Germans.
To so many, that heady day seemed to herald the emergence of a better world. The spectre of communism had finally been laid to rest. Liberty had triumphed over tyranny.
The end of the Cold War even led some to proclaim that this was ‘the end of history’ – which was to say that liberal democracy was now the dominant and unchallengeable force in the world.
However, the 9/11 attacks on America tragically proved this to be absurdly over-optimistic. The eruption of radical Islamism revealed that, while the West may have been rid of one enemy in the Soviet Union, another deadly foe had risen to take its place. So much is, sadly, all too evident.
Melanie Phillips points out something very ironic. An Islamo-Imperialist act of aggression mobilized the Progressives to action. After these attacks, they began an email campaign of disinformation by claiming 9/11 was an inside job. They invented stories about the America’s intentions in invading Iraq. They set up powerful networks in the US and Europe and through the media began their demonizing campaign against Bush.
The Alinsky style personal destruction campaign against Bush was very effective and in 2006, they seized Congress. Then in 2008 they had elected the most Radical Totalitarian Progressive President the US ever had, Barack Hussein Obama. He proceeded to sell out our allies and support nations like Venezuela and Iran. Obama apologized to the Imperialist Muslim World in his June 2009 address in Cairo. The Progressives have enabled a de-facto Islamo-Imperialist victory.
Here is a video to remember what it was like to have a real President. Not the last 4 clowns we have had in Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and now Obama.
Today is November 9th, 2009. Twenty years ago today, yours truly, Coldwarrior, was assigned to the US Army, West Berlin. That evening, the East Germans gave up and let the checkpoints open up for travel. Their system had been unwinding for months, this was the final act. In June of 1987, President Reagen told Gorbachev to tear down this wall. No one on the ground in Berlin thought it could happen. Reagan, as usual, was right and it did come down.
Fast forward twenty years, just this past weekend we had a terrorist act at Ft Hood, and a terrorist act in Washington D.C. With the Democrats passing health care reform that could, if it passes the Senate, take over 1/5th of the American economy.
So with twenty years under our belts from the collapse of communism (I know, the soviets didn’t fall until 1991…) I ask this, are we better off as a country now, after the massive effort called the Cold War? Or are we worse off by emptying one can of worms and opening another with these jihadis and progressives?
coldwarrior
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